Final Exit member facing charges in Dakota County dies

Days after a Dakota County District Court judge upheld most of the charges against him in an assisted suicide case, Jerry Dincin, former president of the right-to-die group Final Exit Network, died Tuesday, March 26.

Dincin died early in the morning in a hospice in Illinois, according to a statement from the group. He was 82 and had been diagnosed with prostate cancer years earlier.

Dincin was one of four people charged in the death of Doreen Dunn, an Apple Valley woman who killed herself in her home in 2007.

Prosecutors say Dincin and another Final Exit member traveled to Minnesota to be with Dunn when she died, and removed the helium equipment she used to kill herself.

Dincin was charged with aiding suicide, a felony, and interference with a dead body, a misdemeanor.

Lawyers for Dincin and his co-defendants argued the Minnesota law barring advising, encouraging or assisting suicide was unconstitutional on free-speech grounds.

In a March 22 ruling, Dakota County District Court Judge Karen Asphaug said the advising portion of the law was too broad, but the encouraging portion was permissible.

Asphaug dismissed some charges, including those against Final Exit founder and former president Thomas Goodwin.

Dincin entered the hospice hours before Asphaug's order was made public. He was too sedated to learn of the ruling, the group said.

The charges against Dincin remained intact, but the group said the ruling "gutted" the state's case against him and other members.

Advertisement

Dakota County prosecutors say they're reviewing Asphaug's ruling to determine how to proceed.